I’ve been following Iron Tower Studio’s Age of Decadence for a few years, and the game looks increasingly like it’ll land sometime in 2011. The lead artist recently posted an account of optimizing AoD’s adaptation of the Torque Engine for higher performance, complete with screenshots reflecting the iterative steps their team followed. The post offers an interesting look at tuning performance with Torque, but it’s also a reminder that indie teams often have to spend as much time on the nuts-and-bolts as big commercial projects do. There’s a lot of talent out there, working on promising smaller-scale projects like this.

If you’re new to AoD, check out Iron Tower Studio for screenshots, videos, and a general introduction to the game. Keep an eye on ITS – they’re also the group supporting Dead State, the upcoming turn-based zombie/survival RPG from industry vets Brian Mitsoda and Annie Carlson.